Roland Garros - Day 11

First topic message reminder :

Here we are. Getting ever near to the end. Today should be treat. Will have to go somewhere to eclipse yesterday's play.

Rafael Nadal v Nicolas Almgaro

Andy Murray v David Ferrer

Maria Sharapova v Kaia Kanepi

Yaroslava Shvedova v Petra Kvitova

Where's your money on?

Nadal in 3
Murray in 4
Sharapova in 3
Kvitova in 2

Good by Murray though, high standard at the end there.

First time Murray has took a set off Ferrer on the pig mud surface.

Yep JM...Almagro played ok...not half bad really but he was never going to beat Nadal was he. Nadal did what was needed...its simple, he's the better player.

He should retire Lydian. Still plays like a junior player where the result isnt that important. Ferrer needs to win this to keep the semi finals better balanced.

Almagro is a good top 20 player, no more than that. And the gulf between everyone and the top 3 is staggering at times...particularly mentally. You feel that Almagro never believed he could win as he walked on court so he probably just tried to enjoy it.

Ferrer/Murray are doing a good job of rendering either impotent for the semis too...they were both unlikely to win that anyway...even less likely as this match wears on.

Lydian is a much better poster than Haddie.

There's a good chance they wont finish today

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Lydian is a much better poster than Haddie.

I would like to give support to Haddie and don't wish for her to be driven off these boards.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Nadal had a pretty comfortable QF though didnt he Lydian.

Tsonga/Ferrer/Delpo/ >>>> Almugro

On clay,
"Mugro">>>>>>>>Tsonga

Almagro is definitely better than Tsonga on clay.

However, Tsonga does have the ability to catch fire and take the game out of your hands, albeit that usually lasts for no more than a set.

Nore Staat wrote:

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Lydian is a much better poster than Haddie.

I would like to give support to Haddie and don't wish for her to be driven off these boards.

Nobody should be.

However, nobody should ignorantly and incorrectly call another poster a racist and then not have the good grace to apologise when shown the error of their ways. That's not just impolite, it's offensive.

Let's not mix up good natured collegiate togetherness with supporting rude and libellous behaviour.

There's wumming and there's over-reaction. Some people are going to react and over-react to certain wummish labels being assigned to their favorites. Personally it doesn't really bother me but it does others.

lydian wrote:Almagro is a good top 20 player, no more than that. And the gulf between everyone and the top 3 is staggering at times...particularly mentally. You feel that Almagro never believed he could win as he walked on court so he probably just tried to enjoy it.

Ferrer/Murray are doing a good job of rendering either impotent for the semis too...they were both unlikely to win that anyway...even less likely as this match wears on.

I agree about Almagro - he has 8-0 and 10-0 records against Nadal and Ferrer respectively. His bread and butter is lesser claycourt tournies, where he has done well in winning 12 odd. Once he gets into the big boy's league of TMS and Slams he never, or hardly ever, goes on a 'run' beyond his seeding, he seems to know his place in the sport and be happy with it. I'm not even in the top 20 in my office, let alone a world sport, so he's done OK, he just does not challenge those above him in the pecking order.

This David Ferrer is difficult to dislodge even by the Clay King Rafa, so if Murray can over come this challenge he should be proud of himself and give it a big go against Rafa.

Ferrer is playing the way expected from him and thats an awesome sight to watch, believe me he gonna give Rafa a very tough time and I wont be a single bit suprised if he makes the 2nd biggest upset in RG after Soderling one.

Nore Staat wrote:There's wumming and there's over-reaction. Some people are going to react and over-react to certain wummish labels being assigned to their favorites. Personally it doesn't really bother me but it does others.

Let them. But let's not position them as victims when their reaction includes being offensive.

Oh, and El Mugro is no big hero of Haddie, she just hopelessly misunderstood the meaning of a word.

invisiblecoolers wrote:This David Ferrer is difficult to dislodge even by the Clay King Rafa, so if Murray can over come this challenge he should be proud of himself and give it a big go against Rafa.

Ferrer is playing the way expected from him and thats an awesome sight to watch, believe me he gonna give Rafa a very tough time and I wont be a single bit suprised if he makes the 2nd biggest upset in RG after Soderling one.

Maybe, but he's dining out on Andys technical deficiencies.

What a point, Ferrer ends with an unforced error after brilliant defense from Murray.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Lydian is a much better poster than Haddie. :thumbsup:

Right JM Ive had enough. Just remember !!!!

why does murray keep breaking himself from 30-0 up, horrendous errors

invisiblecoolers wrote:This David Ferrer is difficult to dislodge even by the Clay King Rafa, so if Murray can over come this challenge he should be proud of himself and give it a big go against Rafa.

Ferrer is playing the way expected from him and thats an awesome sight to watch, believe me he gonna give Rafa a very tough time and I wont be a single bit suprised if he makes the 2nd biggest upset in RG after Soderling one.

He's gonna make it a fight against Nadal but will bend over just in time.

@ Chry

I believe he can and this time Ferrer will do it

bogbrush wrote:

invisiblecoolers wrote:This David Ferrer is difficult to dislodge even by the Clay King Rafa, so if Murray can over come this challenge he should be proud of himself and give it a big go against Rafa.

Ferrer is playing the way expected from him and thats an awesome sight to watch, believe me he gonna give Rafa a very tough time and I wont be a single bit suprised if he makes the 2nd biggest upset in RG after Soderling one.

Maybe, but he's dining out on Andys technical deficiencies.

His only deficiencies are between his head, he can't even concentrate for a whole game never mind a set.

Such a poor match from Andy, 53 unforced errors, half of those absolute sitters

@ MJ

Aint he the same guy who showed hell lot of guts to beat Rafa in AO 2011? aint he the same guy who beat Rafa in USO 2007? the problem is not just on the head but the level at which Rafa plays too.

Ferrer can do it, and like you said he can keep his focus even if Rafa takes a lead he can always get back into the game and still dominate.

Ferrer has been superb so far. Murray above 50 UE is unacceptable at this level. He hasn't used his slice enough and is getting smashed in these rallies.

I think Ferrer is through now, it would take something special to come back now. I don't Ferrer has the mental edge to take Nadal so I'm sticking my neck out and say a Fed-Nadal final with Nadal straight sets.

Invisible Coolers, I must say you make brave predictions.

Let's see if they come true

bogbrush wrote:

Nore Staat wrote:There's wumming and there's over-reaction. Some people are going to react and over-react to certain wummish labels being assigned to their favorites. Personally it doesn't really bother me but it does others.

Let them. But let's not position them as victims when their reaction includes being offensive.

Oh, and El Mugro is no big hero of Haddie, she just hopelessly misunderstood the meaning of a word.

Nicolas is no mug, in fact today he played really well

BP for Murray. Can he do it here?

PS: Argh. UEs galore.

GSM Ferrer.

Murray was so so so poor, worst match i've ever seen from since Wawrinka in 2010 but at least Stan had power. I can barely remember Ferrer hitting a winner, horrible player but deserved to win, Murray was just terrible in every faciet of the game, mentally terrible, horrible horrible errors, carelesness.

Really dissapointing.

Murray leaves the mud for this year.

I agree with Monty he left with a whimper. The breaking then being broke straight back doesn't happen for the other top players. Ferrer will get hammered by Nadal, I thnk it'll be similar to Almagro today that match.

Again Djockovic vs Fed, one of them will face Nadal under cooked unless one of them wins in straight sets. Even if one wins straight sets, no one is beating Nadal this year, which ruins the French open for me, there's no point in watching it every year, there's onnly one winner.

Ferrer. Well played.

Chydremion wrote:Murray leaves the mud for this year.

Ha ha! When Murray wins it's clay when he loses its mud.

Makes you laugh...some people seem to think clay should play like HC or to a lesser extent billiard-table flat grass. Its not a uniform surface, clay is natural, it has top dressing and so its properties change from day to day...its part of what makes winning clay slams a massive challenge.

Well Andy looked quite poor and Ferrer I thought was playing real well like a buzz saw. For most of the match his forehand was more effective. I don't think it will help him much against Nadal, who on clay is another animal all together.

I cannot judge too much as I could only follow the match on phone apps due to work. So Murray lost to a clay court specialist in four sets. From what I can gather he simply didn't play the big points well enough and when he broke serve he handed it straight back. He had his chances but never took them. As for the 59 unforced errors I cannot comment but were they errors when he was trying to be aggressive or not? Not down-hearted as Nadal has had his name on the trophy since the start and clay is not Andy's best surface. Hopefully, better things lie ahead in the coming weeks and months for Andy Murray.

Ferrer's not a clay specialist. His greater successes have come on hard courts.

bogbrush wrote:Ferrer's not a clay specialist. His greater successes have come on hard courts.

I'm not sure of that at all.
Yes he has under-performed at RG in the past but I think this is due to mental pressures, for me his best surfaces is clearly clay.
IIRC he has won most of his titles on clay.

Well he's made two previous Slam semis, at the AO and USO, made the final of the y/e Masters Cup, so he's certainly not someone who makes camp on clay.

Yes he is also a good hardcourt player I admit.

He does have some success on HC but he is known as a Clay Court Specialist

http://www.amazon.com/David-Ferrer/e/B001K1AY54

Ferrer is pretty good on Clay (8 titles) and Hard (5 titles).

Surface YTD W/L, YTD Percentage, Career W/L, Career W/L Percentage, Titles
Hard 12 3 .744 186 118 .612 5
Clay 21 4 .829 227 97 .701 8
Grass 0 0 .750 23 12 .657 1

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/David-Ferrer.aspx?t=mr

So being accurate then, clay is David Ferrer's best surface and Murray's weakest surface. Murray lost in four sets in a match that he certainly had his chances in but blew them and going by his high unforced errors count he played a more aggressive game so not a lot to be down-hearted about. That is now six successive quarter-finals (or better) for Murray at slams and he now moves onto surfaces he is more at home on and better-suited.

CC, I should have posted Murray's numbers for comparison.

Same format as Ferrer's statistics...

Hard 17 4 .852 245 70 .778 19
Clay 5 3 .714 43 29 .597 0
Grass 0 0 .900 49 12 .803 2

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Top-Players/Andy-Murray.aspx?t=mr

CaledonianCraig wrote:So being accurate then, clay is David Ferrer's best surface and Murray's weakest surface. Murray lost in four sets in a match that he certainly had his chances in but blew them and going by his high unforced errors count he played a more aggressive game so not a lot to be down-hearted about. That is now six successive quarter-finals (or better) for Murray at slams and he now moves onto surfaces he is more at home on and better-suited.

I think we can all safely say Craig that HC is definitely more suited to Andy I dont think he has ever pretended otherwise . I never think Andy looks "at home" on clay though it has always baffled me as to why he hasn´t because of his training here in Spain. But Ive no doubt that Andy is glad the CC season is at an end. After Wimby and the Olympics we all know Rafa enters his worst season. Andy needs to look forward to the USO which is the one I think he has more chance of winning

Agreed. That is not to say he is useless on clay (as some posters here in the past would claim) as he has now reached the quarters or better in three out of the last four years at RG and more that it is his weakest surface. To me the key seems clear. Allied with an aggressive gameplan he must fine tune the forehand into a more consistent weapon. When firing accurately it is deadly but when not it proves an achilles heel like yesterday offering up unforced errors. Consistency in serve needs worked on but otherwise consistency results wise are very good as he is now virtually a permanent fixture at the business end of slams. Now he just needs to perform at his very best in those matches.